Upon
the
Watchtower,
Jehovah, I am Standing
O
The overthrow of tyrannical Babylon is the subject of the
21st chapter of Isaiah. God assured his prophet that the
treacherous destroyer of nations and the persecutor of his
people was going to be violently thrown down. The fall of
ancient Babylon must have shocked the world back then.
How could this incredible event come about? The city of
Babylon was considered to be an impregnable fortress. The
prophecy continues: ‘“Go, post a lookout that he may tell
just what he sees.’ And he saw a war chariot with a span of
steeds, a war chariot of asses, a war chariot of camels. And
he paid strict attention, with much attentiveness. And he
proceeded to call out like a lion: ‘Upon the watchtower, O
Jehovah, I am standing constantly by day, and at my
guardpost I am stationed all the nights. And here, now,
there is coming a war chariot of men, with a span of
steeds!”’
History reveals that Babylon fell on one night without much
of a fight. King Cyrus had somehow managed to temporarily
dry up the Euphrates River, perhaps by opening floodgates
upstream to divert the waters into flood detention ponds,
sufficiently lowering the water level so that his army could
wade across the river in the dead of the night. The prophet,
though, does not see a vast army. From his watchtower
vantage point the watchman sees only three war chariots –
and ultimately a single war chariot with a span of steeds –
reminiscent of the horsemen of the Apocalypse, led by the
warrior Christ.
As far as the modern fulfillment of the fall of Babylon the
Watchtower teaches that Babylon the Great of Revelation fell
back in 1919. Their commentary on Isaiah states:
“What of Babylon the Great? By engineering the oppression
of God’s people during World War I, she effectively held
them in exile for a time. Their preaching work was
virtually brought to a halt. The president and other
prominent officers of the Watch Tower Society were
imprisoned on false charges. But 1919 saw an astounding
reversal. The officers were released from prison, the
headquarters office was reopened, and the preaching work
was recommenced. Thus, Babylon the Great fell in that her
hold over God’s people was broken. In Revelation, this
fall is twice heralded by an angel using the words of the
announcement at Isaiah 21:9.”
True enough, apparently a few clergymen schemed to use their
political influence to bring government pressure to bear
against the Watch Tower Society back then. And Rutherford
and seven others were railroaded off to prison on trumped up
charges. But is it not also the case that the confusion and
uncertainty that enveloped the International Bible Students
back then had more to do with the unexpected passing of
their beloved Pastor Russell than anything the clergy may
have done to bring down the Society? A sizable number of
Bible Students simply refused to accept Joseph Rutherford as
their new leader and to this day Bible Student splinter
groups continue to follow the dead Pastor. That schism, more
than anything else, is what resulted in the preaching work
momentarily coming to a stand still.
Not only the falling away of a large percentage of persons
associated with the Watch Tower, but the very fact that the
Bible Students had been riveted on 1914 and the climatic
campaign that came with the release of the Photo Drama of
Creation in that year as well, virtually insured that there
would be a great let down in the years following. To lay it
all off on the clergy as if they had taken the Bible
Students captive is not an honest presentation of the facts.
Also, the Watchtower’s reasoning is faulty as regards
Babylon’s fall supposedly being evidenced by false religion
no longer having any hold over true Christians now. Back
when Babylon was overthrown it was not just the Jews, God’s
people then, who benefited. The Babylonian Empire ceased
from persecuting all the nations. Yet, how could it be said
that religion has lost its power over the nations since
1919?
And besides, Jehovah’s Witnesses have suffered much
persecution from religionists since 1919. For example, the
recent banning of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow was surely
brought about by the influence of the Russian Orthodox
Church. Is it really honest to claim that the clergy have no
hold over the work of Christians when the facts show that in
some parts of the world they still exert a powerful
restraint? If false religion no longer has any power to
restrain the preaching of Jehovah’s Witnesses why is it that
the Watchtower’s “world-wide-work” is greatly restricted, if
not totally prohibited, in countries dominated by Islam? It
seems that the myth-makers brush these inconvenient facts
aside.
Perhaps the most inconvenient facts are the contradictions
inherent in the Watchtower’s convoluted interpretation of
Revelation. According to the Society the scarlet beast that
ascends from the abyss with the harlot as its mount did so
in 1945 when the United Nations came into existence. That
being the case, that means that Babylon the Great fell from
power more then two decades before it rides the beast out of
the abyss! But according to the context of the 17th and 18th
chapters of Revelation, it is after the eighth king comes to
power that the angel declares that Babylon the great has
fallen and commands God’s people to “get out of her.”
Concurrent with the fall of Babylon the Great and the
announcement to “get out of her,” the angel says that her
sins have amassed clear up to heaven and that Jehovah has
called her many sins to mind. The angel further relates that
her judgment comes in one hour. But if the world empire fell
in 1919 because her sins had massed clear up to heaven, why
has her hour of judgment not followed? Why the delay?
Returning to the prophecy of Isaiah, by its very name the
Watchtower implies it is the only source of reliable
interpretation of prophecy and that all anointed Christians
make up a so-called “watchman class.” However, as regards
the biblical watchman, he is used by God to keep watch for
what is coming. That stands in stark contrast to the
Watchtower’s watchmen who do not really announce what is
coming, but rather, the Watchtower Society uses prophecy to
focus attention on what is already past.
But if the Watchtower were really fulfilling the pattern set
by Isaiah in calling out what it sees as regards the fall of
Babylon, shouldn’t we expect that Watchtower to have
foreseen beforehand what was going to happen during World
War One and its aftermath? True, over the course of the
decades since then the Watchtower has skillfully patched
together a credible explanation that has convinced millions
of Jehovah’s Witnesses that virtually all prophecy has been
fulfilled already, but is that really the work of a
watchman?
In truth, the prophecy of Isaiah is foretelling the coming
fall of both the eighth king and his religious consort. That
is in keeping with the fact that the original Babylon was
both God’s imperial executioner and the promoter of false
religion and idolatry. It is this last kingdom that is
destined to thresh Jehovah’s people, for which God will then
require an accounting from them.